Engelska

This anthology explores how Architecture, Urban Planning and Trade have contributed to Civility and Political order. Using Renaissance Italy, where the first trading town was born, as a starting point, the writers bring us on a journey to modern cities and societies. How can we create urban environments where the individual can flourish? Can townscapes in their own right generate happiness, and what role does architecture and trade play in creating civilised societies?

<p>Wars, revolutions and pandemics are recurring phenomena in human history. In this anthology twenty-five world-leading scholars describe and analyse how different societies handle these situations, and highlight humanity s unprecedented capacity for adaption and reorientation. A crisis entails problems, but also opportunities. The anthology is published in a richly illustrated clothbound edition. </p><p>Editors are Kurt Almqvist, Mattias Hessérus and Iain Martin.</p>

<p>We have come a long way from the religions, myths and foundation stories that created the bedrock of man s early understanding of the world and everything in it, and our stock of knowledge has increased exponentially in recent times. In this volume leading scholars in the arts and sciences discuss how knowledge and information have been preserved and transferred throughout history, bringing us up to today s digital age and the multiple challenges it presents, not least with regard to our personal data. </p><p>Amid growing tension between a cognitive elite and those who feel excluded from public discourse and decision making, alongside increasing friction in academia over freedom of interpretation and expression, will our information society turn out to be an era of enlightenment or are we entering a new dark age for knowledge?</p>

With the end of the Cold War and the triumph of globalisation, many believed that nationalism now was a thing of the past: instead the opposite is true. Today, we can see nationalism spreading across the world, as populistic and anti-democratic movements grow stronger. Belonging somewhere seems to become even more important in a time of economic and social uncertainty. In a globalised world, identity, citizenship, and belonging are consequently connected to birthplace and an established residence. The essays in this anthology are based on the Engelsberg Seminar in 2017, where different kinds of identity tied to different kinds of communities were considered. How does a nation emerge? How is unity achieved in an empire with a diverse population? Editors are Kurt Almqvist and Mattias Hessérus.

It wasn´t so long ago that a notion gained currency suggesting we had reached the end of history, that humanity´s sociocultural evolution had advanced to a point beyond which it could not develop much further. A quarter of a century later, this optimism seems to have vanished. Instead, we are witnessing the return of geopolitics. In this volume, leading scholars chart how we arrived where we are today and where we might be going next.